1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for the remote monitoring of patients.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems for remote medical monitoring are already known in which the patient is equipped with means via which he transmits to the doctor who is monitoring him values of physiological parameters allowing daily monitoring of the patient.
In this regard reference may for example be made to patent application FR 2 717 332.
In the system described in this patent application, a processing is implemented on the data received from the patient, enabling the doctor to easily assimilate the data transmitted to him (presentations in the form of tables, graphics, statistics, etc.) and to reveal for him the changes in the physiological parameters measured over a certain period of time.
One object of the invention is to propose a system for the remote monitoring of patients which is further improved and constitutes for the doctor a genuine helpful tool which is able to reveal abnormal changes in the state of a patient and to do so with high reliability.
Another, more general, objective of the invention is to propose a system making it possible to improve the quality of the monitoring of patients, at the same time as their comfort, their safety, their relations with the medical world and which can also be used to help medical research.
Thus, the invention proposes a system for monitoring patients at home comprising interface means at the patient""s home, interface means at a doctor""s office, a server linked by a network such as a telephone network to the interface means at the patient""s home and to the interface means at the doctor""s office, the said server receiving from the interface means at the patient""s home, values of physiological parameters measured by the patient or by sensors and comprising means for storing a history, corresponding to a certain period of time, regarding the values of physiological parameters which are transmitted thereto, the said server furthermore comprising means for implementing a processing on the values of physiological parameters transmitted by the patient with a view to their presentation and to the presentation of their changes on the interface means at the doctor""s office, characterized in that the said means implemented on the latest values of physiological parameters which are transmitted to the server a processing comparing the state defined by these various values of physiological parameters with alert states defined as a function of the stored history of the patient and comprising means for transmitting the results of this processing to the interface means at the doctor""s surge.
Such a system is advantageously supplemented by the following various characteristics taken alone or according to all their possible combinations:
the said processing means compare the values of physiological parameters or values of other parameters determined as a function of the latter values with threshold values which are determined as a function of the stored history and, when such a threshold value is exceeded, transmit an alert message to the interface means at the doctor""s surgery and/or at the patient""s home;
the processing means determine values of parameters referred to as trend parameters which are dependent on the latest values of physiological parameters transmitted via the interface at the patient""s home and on a part of the stored history which just precedes in time the transmission of these latest values of physiological parameters, compare these values of trend parameters with threshold values and, when such a threshold value is exceeded, transmit an alert message to the interface means at the doctor""s office and/or at the patient""s home;
at least a part of the latest values of physiological parameters transmitted by the interface at the patient""s home are furthermore compared with other threshold values which is independent of the history and in that the value of at least one trend parameter is modified when one of these threshold values is exceeded;
the processing means determine with regard to the latest values of physiological parameters which are transmitted to the server, and as a function of the history of the patient, the probabilities of occupying a given alert state, the probabilities thus determined for the various possible states for the patient being transmitted to the interface means at the doctor""s surgery;
the server comprises means for, when a patient seeks to connect up, identifying the said patient, interrupting the communication and connecting up to the interface means of the said patient;
the interface means at the patient""s home enable the latter to transmit information to the doctor only when the patient has filled in a chart of daily parameters;
the interface means at the patient""s home comprise means for checking the consistency of the physiological parameter values measured and transmitted by the patient.